Shooter was IDF deserter from W. Bank settlement [1]
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies
A Jewish Israeli man in Israel Defense Forces uniform opened fire on bus passengers in a Druze neighborhood of the Israeli Arab town of Shfaram Thursday afternoon. Four people and the gunman were killed and 12 wounded, two of them moderately.
Security forces said the shooting was apparently a Jewish terror attack and that the attacker was a newly religious man, an IDF deserter, from the West Bank settlement of Tapuah. Security forces said the gunman, Eran Tzuberi, 19, was a member of the outlawed right-wing extremist Kach movement. Tzuberi, who went AWOL a year ago, recently moved to the West Bank from Rishon Letzion.
A mob boarded the bus and attacked the shooter, but police officers removed the Lower Galilee residents from the bus and surrounded it to protect the attacker. Dozens of people threw stones and bottles at the bus while the gunman was aboard, and police feared they would set the bus on fire. Five police officers were wounded by the mob.
Police were mobilizing in the north of the country, fearing possible riots in Arab towns, Channel 10 reported. Thousands of people were gathered around the bus after the shooting.
The shooting apparently took place in the wake of a dispute between the soldier and fellow passengers on Egged bus No. 165, which goes from Haifa to Shfaram.
